Tidbits, #4

"Keep your pecker hard and your powder dry, and the world will turn..." From the movie
"Platoon"


Two-wheel hand dollys ("2 wheelers" for short), curb plate, strap for pizza boxes, ramp on trailer - all these things are necessary for me to do my job properly & efficiently. In addition, I use: gloves, knife for cutting thru shrinkwrap, and even a flashlight (for pre-trip inspection, and if the interior trailer lights aren't working). If any one of these items is missing or fucked-up, then it creates problems. And, I think you guys all know by now how much I HATE problems.
I'll give you a prime example, and why I call myself "King of the Freak Accident!" So, I'm finishing up the other night at one of the Aurora, IL stores, and I'm pretty frustrated; I've been rained on practically the whole time, I'm out there cursing & swearing, and I have an hour drive to Elgin in front of me. So, I finish up and get moving. I get to the Elgin store and, I'm not kidding, the tailgate is open, and my 2-wheeler is missing. I don't know how the fuck it happened. I didn't hear or see a thing. I mean, usually if your tailgate isn't secured properly, the door's going to be flapping around like crazy, making all kinds of noise. So, I'm standing there, trying to think "What happened, and what do I do now?" First thing I did was call it in, and told them I was going to backtrack and look for the fucking thing. See, my worst fear was to have the 2-wheeler come flying out the ass end, and hit someone's car, etc. So, I drove, in the dawn's early light, all the way back to Aurora, scanning the other direction of traffic, then all the way back again to Elgin. No sign of the 2-wheeler anywhere, and now two more hours out of my life.
At least there also didn't appear to be any traffic incidents involving a foreign object in the road.
So, I go back to Elgin, and I have to wait for another driver to bring me another 2-wheeler (the job is virtually impossible without it, although I did manage to hand-deliver everything except the flour, while I waited), another two-hour delay. By the time I got done in Elgin it's what, 10:00 or later, and now my time's running low. I called ahead to both the Rockford stores, found out what they needed to get by with, and delivered just that stuff. Even doing only that, the delays were enough to put me in violation by about 20 mins or so. Then I just had to start earlier (about 1:30am) on Wed. to deliver the bulk of the two Rockford stores, and get on the road to Dubuque by 5-5:30 or so, which I did. But then I only had till 3:30pm to get back to the base, which I also accomplished. See, I'm very good at planning, timing, etc. I know about how fast I can get the deliveries done, and so forth, but man, what a friggin' nightmare! Then I gotta explain to my boss what happened (I don't know myself), and he says he has to write me up for it. Whatever!
So, you try to ignore the fire in your back, and your legs. I always seem to get it in my right thigh on a longer trip. I just rub my thigh, and that usually helps, but sometimes it gets so bad I have to put my leg up on the dash, which is kinda dangerous, but, with the cruise control on, and hopefully not too much traffic (you watch closely for cops), I can stretch my leg for a few minutes anyway. The back thing, I dunno. Sometimes adjusting the seat can help. On occasion, I lean foreward onto the steering wheel, with my forearms resting on top of the wheel. That alleviates some of the stress on the back, at least temporarily, but you lose some control steering the truck. The lumbar ballons in the seat also can be helpful, but what happens is, you have them blown up all the way, and get used to them, and don't deflate 'em, so you just wind up riding like that the whole time, so they lose their impact as a help, ya know? I'm sure all you truckers out there have experience this stuff, so I'm not saying anything new here. I've even seen some guys put small pillows under their lower backs to help with lumbar support. It really doesn't work for me (I've tried it) 'cause I'm in and out of the truck so often.
Getting recognized for doing a good job is another thing that happens all too infrequently. I mean, my lead man will say "Hey good job," or "Keep up the good work," which is (makes jerking-off motion) ya know? I recently found out that they're now keeping track of our piece-count, in other words, how much we average delivering per hour. I was near the top with something like 130 pieces per hour. The standard is gonna be like 100 per hour. But there are variables to that. Some stores take longer just because how they're laid out, how far you have to walk, the way the damn trailer is loaded, etc. I try to be efficient without killing myself. Hurrying, to me, is just not worth it. That, more than anything causes mistakes, and mistakes can become accidents very quickly. On the other hand, I don't dick around, either. Some of these guys were at 30-40 pieces per hour, staying at the stores for 3 or 4 hours. Why? I want to get in and out of these places, and get my damn day over with. That's not totally unreasonable, is it?

More soon,


Steve